An overview on movies from a total novice

So film has never been an area of entertainment I’ve been particularly interested in through life. But since I’m now going out with a film person I have had to sit through many a picture in the last eight months or so.

I’m also pretty weak when it comes to a real in-depth film knowledge, I have my films that I like and films that I don’t, fairly simple. This is purely based on opinion, as I tend not to take any notice of a film’s impact on modern culture or society, I just watch and enjoy, or not.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy going to the cinema and watching films with friends and so on, but if I’m ever sat at home with nothing to do I have always been more inclined to reach for my Xbox controller, or my iPod, or stick a bunch of episodes of Friends on. That was a really long sentence.

So when Jess comes along and asks to watch this and that all the time I suddenly have a lot of time spent watching movies. Not a bad thing, because for the most part I have enjoyed every one, struggling to think of any examples of films I hated. One may come to me, as always I’m writing this on the fly so who knows.

My DVD collection is pitiful to be honest, made up 90% of comedies. That wouldn’t be the worst thing if I had more than about 15 DVDs to begin with. Also, what happened to cinemas having intermissions, does any place still have that? We get intermissions during plays and comedy shows, why not films, just a thought.

But there lies the main problem for me when it comes to watching films – concentration. I have a real hard time sitting and just focusing on one continuous thing for any amount of time, which is why I have preferred an album or a TV show to a film.

Going to see Django: Unchained was painful. Great film, but painful to just sit for close to three hours and watch.

Now though, in the last couple of months since I made myself an IMDb account – and realised I’d seen a surprising number of films – I’ve been seeking them out at uni to watch instead of putting on the TV.

The beauty of a lot of media output is that it goes beyond watching a show or hearing an album or going to the cinema. Despite my hermitly university nature I’m actually quite a social creature. Preferring pubs to clubs means I naturally fit in with the student lifestyle, and am probably the most well-known person at uni.

Internet sarcasm over, everyone likes to discuss things around a table at a pub. Everyone in my perfect world anyway. Films are just another thing to talk about and disagree on, because I believe there is no interest in life without some clashing opinions. Just so long as I don’t get shut down with ‘your argument is invalid because it is wrong.’

Would football be as fun if everyone went solely to enjoy the match? Would music be as diverse and as experimental if people all settled on one agreed genre? Wasn’t I talking about films at the start of this and not pub talk?

Being a complete film novice makes me sceptical about putting out full-blown opinions on specific films, but at some point I will. For now I will say the only movies I rated 10 on IMDb are Pulp Fiction, The Dark Knight and the two Ace Venturas. (I refuse to count Ace Ventura Jr. as anything other than a botched abortion.)

I’m also currently watching my way through the entire filmography of Edward Norton, an idea spawned from Alex’s man-love of Kevin Bacon. Alex is more filmy than me.

So yes, films. Since I now find myself excited about them, I realise that they can provide a lot more than a TV show can in the same time-frame, due to having to squash a plot, character development, scene setting etc into a couple of hours.

Although often when I think this I come across something like Napoleon Dynamite or Date Movie that make me question everything to do with life and why we co-exist with such tripe. But then I meet people who think Napoleon Dynamite is brilliant and Monty Python isn’t funny.

Thankfully I don’t think anyone in the world ever has disliked Ace Ventura so all is well there. If you do dislike it please sound off in the comments, I’ll try not to let it break my heart too much.